Clear lines and open spaces for the Freud family apartment. A smaller and dimly-lit but central space for the office of the then-unknown doctor. Big within small, dark within light, closed-off within open... or is it the opposite? Everything seems designed to remind us of the stratification of the human mind and of the many ways to interpret it... In that setting, that of a conservative and anti-Semitic Vienna, Ivo van Hove draws a portrait of the young Freud as restless and passionate. A time when the intellectual rush of innovation drives the scientist to try out unprecedented treatment methods. Freud experiments, fails, tries again. To tackle the subject of scientific research and fundamental discoveries, the Flemish director invited his compatriots of FC Bergman to perform and adapt, faithfully and for the first time, the entirety of Jean-Paul Sartre's voluminous The Freud Scenario, originally written for director John Huston. Never filmed in its original version, it becomes here an eruptive play which uncovers the twists and turns of the thoughts of a tormented Freud. By looking into the doubts which would lead to the birth of psychoanalysis, Ivo van Hove reveals that to work on oneself is first and foremost to work against oneself!
Distribution
With Stef Aerts, Hélène Devos, Janni Goslinga, Hans Kesting, Chris Nietvelt, Ilke Paddenburg, Matteo Simoni, Bart Slegers, Steven Van Watermeulen, Marie Vinck
(in progress)
Text Jean-Paul Sartre
Translation Gerardjan Rijnders
Adaptation FC Bergman, Koen Tachelet
Direction Ivo van Hove
Dramaturgy Koen Tachelet
Music George Dhauw
Stage design, lights Jan Versweyveld
Video Jan Versweyveld, Jordi Wolswijk
Costumes An D'Huys
Production
Production Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
Co-production Toneelhuis (Anvers)
With the support of Ammodo, Helga Lasschuijt, Dirk Raes, Anna Wouters, Esther Kwaks Avec l'aide de Nesoptiek, Labels Inc. (Anvers)